When my people speak...
“Others devoted to life will surely find that between the creation of life and the destruction of the destroyers there is no difference but a necessary, indispensable connection; that nothing good can be created that does not of its very nature push forward the destruction of the destroyers.”
—Ayi Kwei Armah
December 2011
17 posts
“Alone, I am nothing; I have nothing. We have power, but we will never know it; we will never see it work, unless we come together to make it work.”
—Ayi Kwei Armah (from his book The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born)
“And also, one is a mother in order to understand the inexplicable. One is a mother to lighten the darkness. One is a mother to shield when lightning streaks the night, when thunder shakes the earth, when mud bogs one down. One is a mother in order to love without beginning or end.”
—Mariama Bâ (from her book So Long a Letter)
“And also, one is a mother in order to understand the inexplicable. One is a mother to lighten the darkness. One is a mother to shield when lightning streaks the night, when thunder shakes the earth, when mud bogs one down. One is a mother in order to love without beginning or end.”
—Mariama Bâ (from her book So Long a Letter)
“Life is very hard. The only people who really live are those who are harder than life itself”
—Nawal El Saadawi (from her book Woman at Point Zero)
“Yet not for a single moment did I have any doubts about my own integrity and honour as a woman. I knew that my profession had been invented by men, and that men were in control of both our worlds, the one on earth, and the one in heaven. That men force women to sell their bodies at a price, and that the lowest paid body is that of a wife. All women are prostitutes of one kind or another.”
—Nawal El Saadawi (from her book Woman at Point Zero)
“What I’ve come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion, everyday acts of compassion.”
—Chris Abani
“My mother named me after a miracle of nature: Waris means desert flower. The desert flower blooms in a barren environment where few living things can survive.”
—Waris Dirie
“I feel that God made my body perfect the way I was born. Then man robbed me, took away my power, and left me a cripple. My womanhood was stolen. If God had wanted those body parts missing, why did he create them? I just pray that one day no woman will have to experience this pain. It will become a thing of the past. People will say “Did you hear, female genital mutilation has been outlawed in Somalia?” Then the next country, and the next, and so on, until the world is safe for all women. What a happy day that will be, and that’s what I’m working toward. In’shallah, if God is willing, it will happen.”
—Waris Dirie
“Real misfortune is not just a matter of being hungry and thirsty; it is a matter of knowing that there are people who want you to be hungry and thirsty”
—Ousmane Sembène
“Racism is a phenomenal thing; it is like a thick mist that obscures the vision and judgement of even great minds.”
—J. Nozipo Maraire (from her book Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter)
“There is not a man in the world who is worth your dignity. Do not confuse self-sacrifice with love.”
—J. Nozipo Maraire (from her book Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter)
“We must continue to unite in sisterhood to turn our tears into triumph. There is no time to rest until our world achieves wholeness and balance, where all men and women are considered equal and free.”
—Leymah Gbowee (via msandrogynous)
